- Among adults in the U.S., the average number of text messages sent or received in a typical day: 10
- Among teenagers in the U.S., the average number of text messages sent or received in a typical day: 50
- Among 8- to 18-year-olds in the U.S., the average amount of time devoted to using "entertainment media" (TV, computers, video games, music, print, and cell phones) in a typical day: seven hours and 38 minutes
- Among 8- to 18-year-olds in the U.S., the average amount of time that media use in a typical day has increased over the past five years: one hour and 17 minutes
- Among 8- to 18-year-olds in the U.S., the average amount of time spent on social networking websites in a typical day: 22 minutes
- Among 8- to 18-year-olds in the U.S., the average amount of time devoted to "print reading" in a typical day: 38 minutes
- Among 8- to 18-year-olds in the U.S., the average amount of time devoted to texting in a typical day: one hour and 35 minutes
- Teenagers in the U.S. who report that their typical school writing assignment is a paragraph to one page in length: 82%
- Teenagers in the U.S. who think that additional in-class writing would improve their writing skills: 82%
- Teenagers in the U.S. who say that their Internet-based writing (such as emails and text messages) has helped improve their overall writing skills: 15%
Sources
1-2. "Cell Phones and American Adults," Pew Internet and American Life Project (September 2010)3-7. "Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds," Kaiser Family Foundation (January 2010)
8-10. "Writing, Technology, and Teens," (pdf) Pew Internet and American Life Project in partnership with the College Board's National Commission on Writing (2008)
Comments
I like the English language and grammar …
A friend uses ‘natrocious’? [sounds like: nahh trocious]
She believes that to be a word and refused to check a dictionary.
What would you do? Say?
Try posing this riddle to your friend:
Q: What do an uncle, an apron, and an adder have in common?
A: Several centuries ago, these words were spelled and pronounced as a nuncle, a napperon, and a nadder.
Words (and the divisions between words) sometimes change over time. (The process is called metanalysis.)
That said, the word “atrocious” has never had an “n” at the beginning. But your friend may have once heard “atrocious” with the indefinite article “an” in front of it (as in “an atrocious mistake”), and mistakenly thought that the “n” in “an” belonged to “atrocious.”
I hope your friendship with language and grammar lasts a long time. And meanwhile, please try to be patient with your “natrocious” friend.
All the best–
Richard